Friday, June 29, 2012

Penny Thoughts ‘12—Secret Things (2002) *

UR, 115 min.
Director/Writer: Jean-Claude Brisseau
Starring: Sabrina Seyvecou, Coralie Revel, Roger Mirmont, Fabrice Deville, Blandine Bury, Olivier Soler

There’s this underground appreciation of erotic cinema among major movie critics that I just don’t get. Perhaps you had to be watching erotica during the seventies to build this appreciation. I don’t really watch much erotica, but every once and a while I hear about a title that is supposed to actually be cinematically challenging. “Secret Things” is challenging all right, but more so intellectually than cinematically.


I will admit that the dialogue isn’t as moronic as say an “Emmanuelle”, nor is its plot. It’s style and pacing, however, are extremely lacking. If you’re watching this movie for its cinematic aspects, there isn’t much to glean here. Sure it looks a little better than your typical soft-core porn, but there’s nothing spectacular in the cinematography. You might be able to learn how to make a passable low budget film, if you study how they make one set look like many different locations with different set dressings here; but even this is really done on a strictly amateur level.

If you’re watching this film for its erotic nature; well, good luck to you. The first hour keeps you waiting so long between any glimpses of any sort of skin that you wonder if they forgot this wasn’t anything but an office drama. Unfortunately, the drama is as dull as the sex. By the time the second half starts to finally kick into more eroticism, you really won’t care anymore. That is if you make it that far into the movie.



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